ianp622 said:
Get it. It's not just a higher difficulty. The layouts change, you don't have a tank, you don't have orders, and you'll get ripped to pieces if you charge ahead. You have to think ahead a lot more, and sometimes you'll have to change your unit placement. Just don't do what some people do and save every attack, it will just make it a chore. If you have to retry any shot you miss, you're doing something wrong.
Hmmm. Once I get a real internet connection for the PS3 (I had a very inconvenient and temporary set up) I'll highly consider doing so.
Has anyone played Selvaria's and Edy's extra missions? Are those fun?
Oh, and to those that start playing:
- Always, always save your EXP for the Old Gentleman at the cemetery. If he teaches you an order, learn it! His orders are kickass.
Then go level your troops.
- I'd highly recommend leveling increased range/accuracy for Scouts, clip size for Shocktroopers, increased damage for Lancers, and increased accuracy for Snipers. Whenever you can, though, prioritize increased armor/blast armor for all of your troops. Cheap and very effective.
-Increase health/armor for your Edelweisse whenever you can. That'd be the most important thing. For add ons, increase def/health/accuracy.
-The best thing for the Shamrock is the Flamethrower. The machine gun isn't that useful (Shocktroops are meant for that) and the Shamrock's cannon is heavily outclassed by the Edelweisse's or a normal Lancer unit. The Flamethrower is unique in its huge range and damage, being doubly useful being equipped to a tank (can charge through the front lines to deal with
anything; Lancers, crouching Shocktroopers, bunkers, Gatling Turrets, AT Turrets). Moreover, when positioned correctly, the Shamrock can jam any units it didn't kill on the opponent's turn with its machine gun.
-I'd recommend a stock of 5 Scouts, 5 Shocktroopers, 5 Lancers, 3 Engineers and 2 Snipers. For specific recommendations, I used mostly:
Alicia, Ted, Wavy, Aika, Mousaad (Mousaad not available until Game+)
Rosie, Hannes, Vyse, Lynn, Jane, Salinas (Lynn requires Karl [Engineer] to be K.O'd once)
Largo, Jann, Hector, Elysse, Audrey (Audrey joins upon obtaining 10 medals)
Nadine, Karl, Homer
Oscar, Marina
I have more than 20 there, but I'd rotate people in and out as needed. These are by no means the best troops; they generally have no negative potentials, or ones that don't affect them severely. Also, I like their attitudes & personalities for the most part. I avoided people with bad personalities, like Cezary, any Darcsen Hater, Knute, ect. There are others, but I forget their names.
I actually killed off Cezary to get the Splintered Horn medal.
-I'd recommend upgrading Engineers and Scouts first and foremost, mostly because Engineers are cheap to level and do a multitude of things, plus they need the added buffs to simply survive. Scouts get a grenade launcher at level 11, which is one of the more useful abilities in game. That, combined with the Rifle Accuracy upgrades, makes these two classes great, great soldiers to use for extensive cover fire.
- Avoid leveling the status changing weaponry upgrades, with the possible exception of the Rifle iteration. Even then, I found that it's much more reliable to kill the enemy outright instead of inhibiting them.
-Use trenches and sandbags to extend the range of your character by hopping over them; AP is not used when you do so.
- Be aware that your character will primarily notice units in front of them. Shocktroopers, for example, will let enemies run behind them scot free. Keep this in mind when finishing a movement with a character. Scouts are the exception; they have 360 degree vision.
Finally, don't worry too much about ranking! Honestly, it's much, much more fun to play "how it's meant to be played" than to play for ranking. For Chp. 17, without giving too much away, you're supposed to capture all enemy bases and then proceed to the final objective. There's an alternate strategy that's much more effective but no where near as fun.
You'll get your chance to destroy the opponent with easy on Game +, and get your A rankings then. Which is also fun, in it's own way.
I should know, I played through it thrice. : p
Edit: Oh, save before each battle (there's no soft reset/start this battle over option unless you outright fail). Sometimes, the tide of the battle just turns against you in a very ugly way, and there'd be no real way out of the mess you found yourself in. It happened to me once or twice during my first playthrough.
Edit 2: Yay, people are talking about the game again!
I'd also like to point out to someone who quoted me earlier; I rather liked the rather mature designs for this game, aside from Selvaria's bust. I didn't need overly sexualized nymphos running around to attract me to this game.
...
I needed Vyse and Aika to do that.
But seriously, what a breath of fresh air.
